252 Sound Signature

I’ve always gone for pre amp on top. A Naim pre always appreciates some air around it. My single stack Fraim set up:

552 Head
ND555
Spare shelf
PS555DR
552PS
250DR

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A very nice 5 box setup :ok_hand:

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Spare shelf for 300DR?! :wink:

Or a second PS555DR for the ultimate monkfish!

Anyway, please stop leading me astray.

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I’ve got my Pre on top of of the CD555, but do admittedly struggle with the lid at times. ATB Peter

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piebia,

firstly, what have I done to my poor brain that I can’t spell your nickname properly? Please forgive my frequent mistypings.
Secondly, as I told you I am somehow reluctant to give advice; a few caveats instead: in the past I owned a couple of those 3rd party PSUs so I can tell you that not only at Naim they’re not very happy about their use as it might reflect negatively on the warranty and/or servicing; and the ones you refer to have a completely different concept and design than Naim’s own, based on small transformers and capacitors and sophisticated regulators which ‘clean’ the current of parasite noise but do not give the punch and the drive that characterise Naim PSUs, based on simpler regulators and large reservoirs of current, for great dynamics and some mild boost in the mid bass which, anyway, is much less evident with the new DR technology. Whether you want this or that effect is your choice, but don’t expect all compatible PSUs to be, hence sound, the same.

As for the 250, I believe it is the oldest Naim amp still in production with its name and more or less (!) its design; so there must be good reasons why it is still built and sold … In my experience 282 and 250 make a bold, assertive pair with a somehow forward presentation and lots of drive; a 252 might be a good match for a 250 in that it is smooth, refined, elegantly detailed and musical. I have no personal experience of the pair, but it seems a frequent choice here and I’m sure many will advise you in favour of this solution. In the end, it depends on how they interact with your speakers and the whole with the room.

Best for all,
m.

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Good summation of the perceived differences between the 282 & 252…but listening to my 252 right now, it is as gutsy a preamp as the 282, and can certainly rock when needed.

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I think that the ‘problem’ with the 282 is shared with the 250 as well.

My reasoning for this was that I moved from 282/Hicap DR/250DR to 252/Supercap DR/300DR starting with the 300. The 300 came up unexpectedly which triggered a chain of upgrades over a short period of time.

The 300 mitigated much of the excess enthusiasm of the 282, this continued when the Supercap was added and finished with the 252. The big change was the 300.

The 282/300 was wonderful, really good and could have been end game had a really good deal on a 252 not have arrived. What suprised me was the extra detail and musical ‘information’ that came through when the 300 arrived. This suggests that the 250 was a kind of bottleneck.

Like you I have not heard a 252/250 so I could be talking complete rubbish but I do think that the extra refinement of the 300 goes hand in hand with the maturity of the 252.

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Gulp. And I was just chatting with my dealer today about booking an unspecified dem… :laughing:

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It’s a flattened earth, Peter?

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Ciao Max, regarding my nickname I can help you easily, it is due to my google email address in which I utilised the first 3 letter of the name and the first three of the surname.
If I have to distill your experience I would say:
The super cap worth the money even with 282
The 282 and 250 are bold and lively
252 and 300 are the best value

Best regards
Pietro

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This is another important information for me you confirm that 282 is not a limiting factor for 300. Thanks a lot

In some people’s opinion, it is. Listen and decide for yourself.

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I’d expect that the benefits of the 300 over the 250 are very much speaker and room dependant. It is, after all, simply amplifying the signal feed from the 252 to drive the speakers. Well, I hope so, going for a 250 that’s on order myself.

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Basically I would tend to agree with you but in this case I don’t because in al Cairo setup an audition is quite complicated

Sure, in the UK we take good dealer assistance for granted, although even here it’s not as easy to find as it used to be.
In the absence of the opportunity to get a proper demo set up by a competent dealer, my approach would be to stick to the natural partners in the Naim range. For amps that means:
202/200
282/Hicap/250
252/Supercap/300
552/500
When making staggered upgrades, always do the preamp first, and you will generally avoid this dilemma. When climbing the whole ladder that would mean temporarily using
282/200
252/250
552/300
Any of which I could happily live with, even as long term systems. Do the power amp first and you go through:
202/250
282/300
252/500
Some of which may be acceptable to some people, but when buying without demo, source first, or in this case, preamp first, is a far safer option.

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Mike the 250 a fine amp you shouldn’t worry, it works beautifully with the 252. There’s always something bigger or better over the hill. I can’t use all the power I have now, while I’m sure the 300 is a mighty amp you to ask yourself is it really warranted.

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I absolutely agree, although I don’t think it’s “just” a question of simply amplifying what the pre sends, as Mike said. The separation of power supply for the 300 must on its own have great benefit.

But the 250 is just lovely with the 252. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to dem the 300 at some point, but I could happily, very happily, live with my stereo as it stands.

Mike, you’ll love it…promise!

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It’s really interesting, because the 252 through the SN sounds superb. The improvement in just swapping the pre-amp stage is just stunning. I wander between thinking, if this infamous 250 doesn’t arrive, I can live with the SN2 power amp. Then I read the forum and I’m swinging to “what would a 300 bring”. So, I’ll stick with my current approach and just hope that the 250 arrives, as the end of May is getting very close now…

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When I got my 282, I ran it with the Nait XS2 as the SN3 was sick - sounded good! The quality of the pre was very apparent even with the mismatch.

I think you (we!) shouldn’t worry too much about the 300… that’s a possibility for the future, but by no means inevitable or necessary.

Good luck with your 250 - as you say, not long to find out.